Welcome to a rare post-therapy edition of Wise Madness. My phone appointment was for 9:30. Good thing I had a restful night’s sleep. All that has to do with is how well I breathe during the night. I even woke up 15 minutes before my alarm went off at 8:00. I didn’t get to blog before therapy, but I got some things done online and most importantly remembered to have my coffee. A big advantage of cold brew is that I don’t have to make it in the morning, just pour it. I feel good today because not only did I drink coffee, I got things done yesterday.
I told you that I was sending postcards to voters in Georgia who are at risk of voter suppression through Help Save Our Democracy. After I wrote that a miracle occurred, I actually did it. I wrote 20 postcards and even mailed them. The mailing was the fun part, we have a mail chute in the building, right outside my door! I remember first seeing one as a kid in an office building and wanting to mail a letter and watch it go down the glass chute. Making them glass was brilliant. If you are lucky you can watch mail coming from a higher floor zooming past you. Don’t worry, I’m not a tease, I took a video of my second batch of 10 being mailed.
How exciting was that? Are you ready for some more thrills? I’m glad certain childhood delights never left me. They make life far more enjoyable.
I’ve been hinting about doing an online concert and now I am free to discuss it. John Platt’s On Your Radar is going to be streaming on June 9. The plan is for it to be streamed on our FB Page, our Facebook group, and our brand new YouTube Channel. Please click on the link and subscribe to it. One we get to 100 followers we can get a more user-friendly URL. While I loved the idea of running the tech end of the show I was also anxious about it as I would have to learn many new skills very quickly. I wasn’t even sure what software I’d need. I asked on FB for help and many people chimed in by suggesting I go to Rob Hinkal of ilyAIMY. This was an I’m an idiot moment. Rob’s a friend. A livestream he did with his wife and bandmate Kristen Jones who he lives with and remotely with bandmate Rowan Corbett was part of what let me know that it’s possible to do On Your Radar, with it’s multiple artists and interviews, as a live stream. Instead of learning all these new skills and walking a tightrope I used my old skills of organizing people to get the job done. I’m good at recognizing other people’s talents and have no issue with letting them do things that they are better at that I am. Yesterday Rob, John, and I had a meeting on StreamYard, the platform we’ll be using. Think of it as a more flexible version of Zoom. With this Rob will be able to send the show out on Facebook and YouTube simultaneously. Going forward this might become a regular arrangement and I will be Rob’s apprentice and learn to do it myself. I’m excited. I had my first business video conference and it was with two friends. That counted as yesterday’s phone-a-friend. I socialized and accomplished something at the same time.
I tried something different for dinner, knackwurst. I bought it assuming it was a variant spelling of knockwurst. Turns out it is the standard German spelling. The name got corrupted over here. I’ll be buying that again, it was great. It might kill me, but I could live on a diet of nothing but sausages. I served it on a brioche hot dog bun, which made it even better. My current dessert staple is ice cream sodas. Between those and my iced coffee I’m once again making good use of my metal straws. I get to feel environmentally virtuous as I indulge myself.
I’m not going to tackle the politics of the day. I’m feeling good. I’m going to write about things that are making me feel good; helping people vote, mail chutes, On Your Radar, knackwurst, ice cream sodas, and friends. There is politics in that but it’s not ranting but doing something constructive. That’s better for the world and it’s better for my soul.
Wise Madness 